230 
ST. HELENA. 
world. Plants from temperate climes are there seen to grow and 
flourish side by side with others from tropical regions ; groves of 
stately Oaks, in full leaf, mingle with clusters of Bamboo, whose 
slender, graceful branches overtop the foliage of their companions ; 
while beneath the shade of both, Bananas and Arums, in rich pro- 
fusion, grow along the banks of pearly mountain streams. Many 
valuable and useful plants have, from time to time, been introduced 
into the Island, which in other countries are made the source of 
much profit : Cotton, Coffee, Sugar-cane, Olive, Tobacco, Palma 
Christi (Castor-oil plant), and New Zealand Flax, with other fibre- 
producing plants, all now grow wild, and bear evidence to the very 
small attention that has been paid by the inhabitants to the soil and 
its productions, in the fact that none of them are made use of ; and 
although in one year no less than 18,267 lbs. of tobacco, and 1620 lbs. 
of cigars, upon which a high duty is levied, were imported into the 
Island, not a single pound of native-grown tobacco is gathered either 
for home consumption or for exportation. Circumstances in the 
history of the Island have tended very much to draw away the atten- 
tion of the residents from the cultivation of its soil as a source of 
profit ; and now that they no longer exist to the same degree, and the 
value of the soil forces itself forward, the necessary capital for planting 
is not forthcoming. The land contained in the Island may be clas- 
sified as follows : — 
Acres. 
Pasture and hayland 7,450 
Forest trees 575 
Under cultivation with roots and crops . . . 144 
Orchards and gardens 65 
Flower gardens and miscellaneous .... 50 
Barren 1,816 
Commons belonging to the Crown indif- ig 700 
ferent pasture, -f barren) 
Notwithstanding its limited area there does not appear any reason 
why many of the useful plants, now growing in a wild and semi- 
wild state on the Island, should not be cultivated and yield con- 
siderable profit. General Beatson, in his “ Tracts on St. Helena, 
gives the results of many experiments, showing plainly what the 
soil is capable of producing ; and although his trials were made 
under the most favourable circumstances, and must therefore be 
